Howling at the Moon
by Lawra
Summary: This time, Genma gets to be the special parent, life however continues to throw Ranma lemons.... Not the perverted kind, the make lemonade kind!
1. The Wild Side

"Speech"

'Thought'

#Panda Sign#

X x x x x x

Drying off her hair as best she could with a simple white cotton towel, Ranma rolled her eyes at Ryoga, who was soaking some newspaper she had laid out on the floor. Her former classmate was in the form of a white and brown dog, who was doing a good job of acting the part. Ryoga had a short time earlier attacked her while she slept, attempting to get revenge for something or other, that something looking like Jusenkyo.

"Listen Ryoga, I feel bad about what happened to you, but you gotta cut out these late night attacks. I'm a guest here, I have to be careful!" She pleaded with the dog formed Ryoga, who was staring at her without understanding. Hearing footsteps in the hall, she gave off a disgusted snort, and twisted her head around to see Akane walk into the room.

"Ranma, what's that dog doing here?" The short haired girl asked.

"What about you?" She asked, ignoring Akane's question, interested in finding out why the youngest Tendo was up. "What's with the pig?" Her eyes narrowed at the small round pig in Akane's arms with a bandanna around its neck. The animal was giving her a look of pure hatred, and even started to squirm and squeal attempting to get at her. That bandanna it wore was also very familiar, but she ignored it, Akane must have found it somewhere and put it on the pig since Ryoga was right next to her.

"What are you mad about?" Akane asked, clutching the pig to her bust. "Hush now and I'll put some medicine on that bump."

Hopping to her feet, Ranma followed Akane to a cupboard, and watched the pig nuzzle itself closer to Akane's breasts, a visible blush appearing under its eyes. "What? It's blushing!"

"Don't be stupid Ranma." Akane pulled a medicine kit from the cupboard and Ranma plucked the pig from Akane's arms with a loud squeal.

"Hmm." Quickly she held up the animal to check its gender. "I knew it! It's a real dirty pig, see." Twisting the pig towards Akane she showed off its privates parts. "See, it's a male."

"So it is." Akane nodded as Ranma handed the squirming pig back to the Tendo. "So what is up with the dog?"

Ranma debated with the idea of simply telling Akane that Ryoga was currently a dog, but decided quickly against it, realizing that she would be just as angry if her own secret was simply told to every passerby. 'Don't worry Ryoga, I'll keep your secret.'

"Is that the Yamada's dog Bess?" Akane interrupted her thoughts, the dog immediately rushing over to be petted by Akane. "Sure it is! Hello Bess!" The youngest Tendo proceeded to pet the animal.

'No way.' Ranma fumed, rushing to the kitchen to retrieve the kettle she had set to warm in order to change Ryoga back. Returning, she twisted Akane away from the dog, and poured some of the hot water of its head.

"Ranma, what are you doing?" Akane asked while looking away.

"Nothing." She answered, being sprayed by a fine mist as the dog shook itself off, completely unchanged. "Wow, don't I feel like a complete idiot."

"Where are you going? To bring Bess back?"

"A hot bath." She answered Akane's question. 'How didn't I realize that was just a normal dog?' Running around in the middle of a rain storm wearing nothing but a thin tank top and boxers wasn't the best idea. It had been difficult enough to fall asleep in the first place, there was little chance she would be able to do so now. Just one more thing she'd blame Ryoga for.

"Well here." Akane shoved the piglet into her face. "Warm the piglet up too, he's all cold."

"You want me to take a bath with food?" She looked doubtfully at the strangely confused pig, who was actually staring down at the tops of her breasts.

"This kind of pig is kept as a pet, they aren't food." Akane tried to sound official.

"Since when are you an expert on pigs?" She asked, taking the animal by the back of his neck.

"Since when do you know everything about me?" Akane retorted.

"Fine Hogmaster, I'll bathe your little slice of bacon."

Giving the water in the furo a check to see if it was still hot, Ranma started to strip off her clothing, while holding the pig in place on the floor with a foot. "So if the dog's just a dog, where's the moron Ryoga. Shut up you little porker." She snapped at the pig that wouldn't stop making squealing noises.

"Quit squirming, it's not going to help." She kicked the animal into the actual bath area and shut the door before the pig could run out. "In you go!" She shouted and grabbed the animal to hold under the water. "Heh, stupid pork-- er." She trailed off when her hand was forced back out of the water. Blinking several times, she found herself staring at an equally naked Ryoga with a furious look on his face.

"So." She broke the awkward silence. "You're a." She stopped trying to choose her words to be diplomatic. "You're a pig."

"Ranma." Ryoga snarled, lunging forward with a punch. "You're dead!"

X x x x x x

Genma Saotome sat up suddenly on his futon, The brief altercation between his son and some strange boy earlier had woke up him, and he was having a difficult time getting back to sleep. Lumbering to his feet, he would go take a nice hot bath, and just relax. After he could head even out and get some fresh air.

X x x x x x

Ranma stopped Ryoga's punch easily by holding up, and letting the lost boy break a nearby bucket. After that, he had been calm enough to weave a tale of woe and hardships from his cursing at Jusenkyo because of some strange girl and a panda. Ranma listened, only a few times interrupting Ryoga to point out that such a thing wasn't really possible.

"The hideous body that curses me-- the devouring that nearly befell me-- they're all your fault Ranma!" Ryoga shouted, pointing a finger directly into her nose.

"Hey! Hold it! You said it was some girl that knocked you into the spring."

"Yes, so?" Ryoga leaned forward.

"Then why would you be mad at me?" She also leaned forward, jerking a thumb at herself. "You should be mad at that panda and that gi--." Ranma stopped her verbal tirade and took a quick glance down. Another thing occurred to her, the day after first being turned into a girl, she had been chasing Genma around, furious over him stealing her food, and at the time her father had been a panda. There was one point where she thought she hit something, but had waved it off.

'Oh shit it was me.' Still on her knees, she started to shuffle towards the water faucets. "We really should talk about this in the morning Ryoga, I mean, it's late, we're all worked up. Wouldn't it be better to talk when we've calmed down?" She suggested when the outside door opened, with Genma standing behind it.

Her panda father glanced slowly between them before holding up a sign. #P-Pardon me!# The door was then slid shut quickly.

'I end up naked with another guy one time and he'll never let me live it down.' She glowered.

"A panda?" Ryoga asked hesitantly, slowly turning to look directly at her. "That girl--" The lost boy's eyes narrowed when his mind finally put the pieces together. "It was you!"

Spinning around, she reached out and turned on the cold water full blast. Unfortunately it was set to go to the showerhead up on the wall, and didn't turn on before Ryoga had put a fist through the wall and broke the hose, stopping the water from showering down on them, instead it started to spill the water into the wall. Rolling to the side, she slid on the tile up into a crouched position. "Knock it off Ryoga, now is not the time."

"I'll have your head!" Ryoga shouted, slipping on some of the cool water that had spilled out on to the floor.

For the second time tonight, Ranma felt her control start to slip, her heart rate increased to painful levels, and this time she didn't resist. Her skin turned black as long dark fur grew to cover her form. Loud cracks echoed off the walls as her bones shifted and altered. Feet lengthened, forcing her to alter her stance as thick claws scraped against the tile. The bones in her hands grew, with thick pads developing underneath the palm, and the last part of each finger. Like on her feet, long sharp claws grew from her nails, along with changes to the bone structure, made making a fist an impossible.

Her upper body thickened, rib cage expanding forward and growing in size, her breasts shrinking back into her chest, neck lengthening as her face pushed forward and out into a short muzzle. Closer her eyes, Ranma opened them a second later, revealing to Ryoga that the iris had expanded leaving no whites.

Ryoga stared in stunned silence as her body completely shifted into its lycan form. Her mind had simplified, focusing more on urges and actions than thought and reason. Taking a single step forward, she now towered over Ryoga by more than a head, and she leaned forward to snort directly in the lost boys face. Being unable to talk, she couldn't communicate that if Ryoga continued this fight, then she would be making a meal of him. Ryoga squeaked once before dropping lifelessly to the floor unconscious.

Snorting in disgust, she looked up from Ryoga's form to see herself reflected in a mirror on the wall. Not understanding immediately that it was just a reflection, she took a moment to gauge the other Lycan as a threat before backing down when she realized that it was merely her own form. Seeing the water pouring from the hole in the wall, she lapped at the cool liquid, having become dehydrated from the change. Finished quenching her thirst, she clumsily turned the handle to shut the water off, even though it had long since changed Ryoga back into a piglet.

Struggling in vain to change back into human form, she gave up quickly, other desires and urges trumping it. Moving from the bath area into the hallway, she was able to use the hall door to get outside without being noticed. Once outside, she took in deep breaths from night air. The rain had stopped since she had found the neighbors dog outside, and she took off to enjoy herself before she would have to change back in the morning.

X x x x x x

"Why do you still have that thing here?" Ranma narrowed her eyes at Ryoga in pig form, who was being fed food by Akane. It was Sunday morning, and without class she had hoped to sleep in, but Genma had woken her up for a brief spar. He even used the excuse that she shouldn't have lost control last night. Regrettably she had been thrown into the koi pond during their spar, so she would have to take the bath Ryoga had denied her last night.

Ranma glowered at Genma, who used his curse as a way to avoid changing into his Lycan form. She had no such luxury to avoid the instinctive action, and he seemed to now take great pleasure in using it to insult her control.

"I'm going to keep him as a pet." Akane said happily, having found the unconscious Ryoga turned back into pig form when she went to investigate last night. "And his name is P-chan. P as in the English word for pig, and chan as in cute." Ryoga seemed particularly happy about the last part, making a happy snort.

"Thanks for explaining it to us Akane, I'm sure we wouldn't have gotten it otherwise." Nabiki teased and Akane gave her sister a dirty look.

"So what happened with the bathroom Ranma?" Akane changed her attention from Nabiki to her.

"Your slab of bacon decided to go berserk and I had to kick him through the wall a couple times." She answered.

"You shouldn't pick on him Ranma, he's just an animal, he doesn't know any better."

"Yea, just an animal." She grumbled, knowing that Ryoga very much knew better, her bored look turned to an angry glare when Ryoga shuffled himself to better fit between Akane's breasts. Ryoga didn't really look at her with recognition of her transformation last night, probably having blocked out the memory, or was just too stupid to figure it out. If she really felt like keeping it a secret she could even say that it was part of the cursed form.

Standing, she twisted her neck side to side until she felt a satisfying crack. "Well I'm going to go to the bathhouse." Ryoga's punch through the wall had damaged the hot water pipe as well, she'd change back with the hot water heater in the kitchen but it'd be nice to have a good long soak.

#I'll come with boy# Genma signed.

"Well hurry up then."

X x x x x x

Returned to his birth form, Ranma closed his eyes, content to just enjoy the hot bath. Genma was still painstakingly washing the last bits of hair on his head on a nearby stool. Shaking his head, he chose not to point out that he should just shave it off and get it over with, rather than being perpetually balding. The bandanna that he always wore really didn't help either. The bath area only had two other occupants, two old men who were talking to each other on the far side.

"You know you're not supposed to change like that." Genma admonished him as he slipped into the water. "We had enough trouble in China."

"What? Ryoga pissed me off." He answered his father's challenge. "Tries to start a fight three times in one day, twice during a full moon? He's lucky I didn't eat him.

"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, if you're going to live with humans, they can't know what we are."

"Yea I heard that from you enough, and how the big bad vampires will hunt us down. Seriously, I've never even seen a vampire outside some cheesy horror flick." Rolling his eyes he added a half beat later. "Or another Lycan for that matter."

"I'm warning you boy, don't let humans know."

"Whatever old man." He waved off his father's paranoia. Having been born a Lycan unlike his father who was bitten, Ranma didn't really understand why humans would have such a problem. Sure there was that crazy chick in China who had tried to kill him with silver. But people like the Tendo's reacted well to the Jusenkyo curse. Why not the fact that he could change into a humanoid wolf?

"Don't think I won't say I told you so if you get the attention of vampire Death Dealers."

"Don't think I believe they exist."

X x x x x x

Kettle filled with hot water in hand, Ranma hung upside down outside of Akane's room, using his toes to grip the overhang. Opening up the youngest Tendo's window, he quickly flipped in, and closed it behind him to stop any cool air from alerting Akane to his presence. He had waited till she had fallen asleep, a task that had taken over an hour, but he finally felt sure enough that she wasn't going to wake up when he entered her room.

He had been immeasurably patient with Ryoga, but having to watch that pig cuddle up against Akane all day, someone who he considered part of his pack to an extent, had worn his patience to nothing. If Ryoga was going to try and make a habit of this, then he was sorely mistaken.

Akane's clock made soft ticking noises, and Ryoga squeezed his pig body away from Akane to start growling at him. Brandishing the kettle at Ryoga, he took pleasure in seeing the pig realize what the object was. "If you don't want to be exposed you should shut up." Slowly reaching out, he grabbed the bandanna around Ryoga's neck and started to lift him away, but Akane reached out and snatched him before he could. Frowning, he grabbed Ryoga around the neck and forcibly tugged him away from the girl.

"If you bite me I'll splash you right now." He warned Ryoga, who was twisting his head in an attempt to latch on to his hand. Exiting through the window, he swung up on to the roof, and dropped the pig unceremoniously on to the tile next to the lost boy's clothing and backpack. "That's a good pig." He teased and poured the kettle on to Ryoga.

"Hmmph, I just didn't want to wake Akane." Ryoga tried to sound nonchalant as he pulled on his clothing.

"That's great, now take a hike, get lost, I don't really care."

"I don't think so." Ryoga replied back, challenging him. "I know your secret now."

"What- what secret is that?" He asked, realizing that Ryoga must remember the previous night.

"Whatever you are, I'm sure you don't want anyone to find out. I mean, I wouldn't want someone knowing I was a big monster either." Ryoga laughed at that last part, making Ranma's lip curl up in a silent snarl. "So no, I'm not going anywhere, I said I would destroy your happiness, one word out of you and I tell everyone what you really are."

"Why should they believe you at all about me?" Ranma tried to change the subject. "And you don't know Akane very well. She'll turn you into pulled pork if she ever found out about your curse."

"I'll find out what you are, then I'll tell everyone about it, I will have my revenge." Ryoga ignored his question.

"Like your pig brain could even comprehend what I am." He got up into Ryoga's face.

"Ranma." The lost boy growled.

"That's my name, now leave before I get angry-- and this time I won't stop when you pee your pants."

"I didn't pee my pants!" Ryoga protested.

"Sure you didn't." He laughed and spun to walk to the edge of the roof. Looking back at Ryoga he tapped his nose. "I got a good nose, so don't even let me smell you around here." Dropping from the roof to the grass below, Ryoga followed after him, intent on starting a fight, or continuing a verbal argument. Only problem being that he headed off across the yard, having been unable to follow him after losing his direct line of sight.

"What a moron." Ranma shook his head.

X x x x x x

"I'm really worried about P-chan." Akane continued to repeat the same line she had spoken all morning while on the way to school with Ranma. She had looked everywhere for her new pet without success.

"He's fine." Ranma replied without concern for the sweet little pig, instead he looked more concerned about the rain clouds that were on their way out.

"But how do you know?!" She pleaded, getting up into the boy's face.

"Uh-- I-- well I kicked him into a wall and he was fine right? Who's going to do worse than that?"

"You're such a jerk." She huffed, quickly walking away from Ranma.

"Aw come on Akane, it was just a pig, what do you want a pig for anyways?"

"Just shut up Ranma." She punched her unwanted fiancé in the arm when he caught up to her. If only she could prove that he had done something, she would show him then!

"Why do you want a pig for a pet anyways? A dog would be better." Ranma continued to badger her. "That's it, you should get a dog, something that's actually smart."

"Akane I would date with you!" Kuno announced, attempting to glomp on to her. Without paying much attention, she dropped him with a well placed punch to the head.

"I don't want another pet." She turned to Ranma, grinding Kuno underneath a foot. "There was nothing wrong with P-chan, and the more I hear you try and say I should get something else, or how this would be better, the more I think you had something to do with him disappearing."

"Well I didn't, I bet he wandered off and got lost all by himself. You saw how he couldn't even walk a straight line."

A deep scowl spread over her face as she debated Ranma's point. P-chan had seemed unable to follow her or get around on his own. The few times she had let him walk around, he had looked completely lost, stopping every few steps to check his position. "You'll help me look for him after school?"

"Uh-- fine, alright." Ranma finally caved in to her request.

X x x x x x

Ranma did actually try and find Ryoga after school. Not that he wanted that pig anywhere near Akane, but because it was bugging him personally. It was just impossible to track him, like a ghost he just up and vanished. Even his scent got screwy every so often. In the end he had simply stopped when he realized that he was in another ward.

On the way back he was splashed by a car when it ran through a puddle. Watching the automobile putter down the road without even noticing the effect it had, she wondered how they hadn't noticed running through such a huge pot hole. Continuing on her way, the sound of a foot being planted was all the warning she had before a sword nearly took her head off.

A second attack attempted to split her vertically. Finally she got a good look at a familiar form wearing a red sleeveless mini cheongsam, and brandishing a pair of silver edged dao swords. "Sha- Sha- Shampoo!" She stammered, taking a step back, the small amount of people in the street rapidly noticed that a fight was about to break out. "What-- what are you doing in Japan?" She asked.

"I kill!" The Chinese girl shouted, slashing at him.

"Ack!" Ranma leapt over Shampoo, avoiding her slash, before bounding off a wall, and up on to the rooftops to start fleeing.

"You not get away!" Shampoo called out from behind her, keeping pace. Glancing back, Ranma frowned, wondering how Shampoo was keeping up with her.

Not slowing when she arrived back at the Tendo's, she charged into the living room, finding Soun and Genma playing shogi on the veranda. Nabiki was in the room watching television with Kasumi knitting at the table, a kettle of hot water was being used for tea, and she quickly upended it over her head.

"Something the matter son?" Soun asked.

"I wasn't here." Trying to run back out of the room, a silver sword split the shogi board in two, and embedded itself into the floor. Both older men jumped in shock away from the board, with Shampoo landing lightly next to the sword to pull it free. The girl looked back and forth before settling her eyes on him. Gulping, he knew that Shampoo had never seen his male form before, so he should be safe from those silver swords she was carrying. Shampoo approached him, shoving one of her swords in a scabbard tied to her back.

Her lavender eyes narrowed as she studied him, bringing a hand up to pat at his chest. "You man?" She asked.

"Uh yea, I'm a guy." He laughed nervously and Shampoo came in close to sniff at him.

"You know where she is." She growled.

"Huh?"

#What did you do boy?# Genma signed to him.

"I don't know!" He answered, edging away from Shampoo who was raising the free sword up to point at him. "If you're talking about that girl who ran through here."

"I am!" Shampoo raised the sword up to nearly touch his chest.

"She left just before you threw your sword." He explained, pointing to the right. "She took off that way." Shampoo scowled before taking off out the door and in the direction he had pointed. Sighing in relief, he slid to the ground next to the table.

"Well now." Nabiki drawled. "This is interesting."

"Who was your little friend?" Kasumi asked sweetly.

"It's a long story." He answered, sweating over how he was going to explain this without telling them that he was a Lycan.

"Been experimenting in your girl form have we? Bad breakup?" Nabiki asked suggestively. Blinking several times, it took him a moment to catch what the middle sister was suggesting, before his face reddened.

"No not like that!" He shouted, looking away embarrassed.

"Nabiki you shouldn't speak like that." Kasumi admonished her sister.

"I'm back!" Akane's happy voice interrupted. "And look, I found P-chan!" She held out the pig as she appeared in the doorway, smiling brightly. "Hmm? What's going on?" She asked, finally noticing the floor.

"Ranma's lesbian girlfriend showed up." Nabiki supplied an answer.

"Ahh! Nabiki!" He yelled, shocked at the girl's flippant attitude. "She's lying Akane!" He tried to explain to his unwanted fiancée. "It's this crazy girl who's out to kill me."

"Well I can see why she would want to do that." Akane said casually.

"No like really out to kill me, cut me up into little pieces, and who knows what else." He protested her dismissal of Shampoo's threat.

"Yea right Ranma, even if she was, what did you do to get her so angry at you?" Akane laughed.

"I have no clue! she's always been after me, ever since I met her in China, she's always been out to cut off my head!" He explained, literally the first time he had met Shampoo she had been screaming something in Chinese, and trying to stab him.

"So you are her!" Shampoo yelled, slashing her way through the paper wall, and advancing on him.

"Oh no!" He scrambled away on all fours to hide behind Genma.

#Leave me out of it!# Genma hit him with a sign. Before he could pick himself up off the grass he had been knocked on to, a silver sword was poised over his throat, freezing him in place.

"Tell Shampoo cure." She demanded.

"Cure for what?" He asked carefully, his skin hissing for a second when he barely touched the sword.

"You turn Shampoo into beast like you. Want cure."

"Bwa?" He blinked, confusion replacing terror, to look up from the blade to Shampoo's face, and finding that she was fighting to keep herself from crying.

"Shampoo turn into monster now, you tell me how cure." She restated.

#Boy did you bite her?# Genma asked.

"I've never bitten anyone!" He protested, always having remembered Genma's warnings that if he bit anyone they would likely die. Sure the thought of making more Lycans to hang out with was tempting, but he wasn't going to go running around biting people. Genma was bitten, and he wasn't fond of being a Lycan, so he wasn't going to force it on anyone.

"Well I'm lost." Nabiki leaned against the door frame and crossed her arms.

"Er, could you put that sword away, and uh-- tell me how I supposedly bit you?" He asked, slowly reaching up to grab the sword by the non silver portion, and pull it from his neck.

"If Shampoo tell, you tell Shampoo cure?"

"Yes?"

X x x x x x

Shampoo approached the beast in human form carefully. It was night time, but there was no moon tonight, so she felt safe. Tracking the girl was difficult, she could move so fast, and seemed to notice whenever she was close. Pausing, she noticed a panda sleeping nearby. 'Where did she get a panda?'

The animal was also sleeping, so she paid it no mind as she slowly slid a sword out of the scabbard attached to her hip. The ceremonial item had been in her great grandmother's possession since before she was born. Never would she have touched it without permission, but she had taken it for the simple fact that it was silver plated underneath other intricate precious metal work. Her great grandmother would be very unhappy that she had taken it without permission. But she hadn't had time to ask, and she'd deal with the consequences when she returned home.

Of course once she returned home with proof of her ability to best a supernatural creature, all should be forgotten. Shaking her head, she couldn't let thoughts of the notoriety she would receive cloud her mind. Right now she had a task to complete. One last thought of how the girl had also defeated her several times entered her mind, and she realized that she needed to do something before cutting off the beasts head.

Laying her sword down at her side, she reached both hands forwards in an attempt to grab the sides of the girl's head. Shampoo would give her the kiss of death before doing the deed. Before her fingers could touch skin, the beast girl rolled away from her. Undeterred, she made another attempt, and met with similar results.

Growing frustrated, she straddled the girl, and forcibly grabbed her head. 'I have you now.' Leaning in she twisted the beast girl's head to the right, inadvertently putting the flesh of her thumb up against the girl's mouth, and gave her a light kiss on the cheek.

X x x x x x

Ranma had to dodge a punch by Akane when Shampoo said that she had kissed him in his sleep. "What was that for?!" He demanded.

"How many other girls have you been kissed by?" Akane asked angrily.

"I was asleep!" He protested.

"A likely story!" Akane replied.

"I'm not the one telling it!"

"Shampoo continue story now?" The girl after his life asked.

X x x x x x

As she planted the kiss, Shampoo closed her eyes for a moment, opening them to find that the girl she had just gave the kiss of death to, was groggily opening her own. Recognition came from the blue eyes of her target, and Shampoo broke away, diving for her sword. As she moved, her hand pushed into the girl's mouth briefly, and was cut by sharpened canine teeth. Shampoo didn't notice the cut that ran along the side of her thumb, as she grabbed her sword, attempting to impale the girl before she could run away.

X x x x x x

"Hold it!" Nabiki spoke up. "Monster, beast, bite? Ranma, are you some kind of werewolf?"

"Er- yeah I am." He admitted with a shrug, earning similar looks to when the curse came out.

"And you didn't think that was something we should have known? That we have someone who's going to turn into a wolf and maybe eat us on the full moon?" Nabiki continued.

"I don't do that." He corrected.

"Saotome did you know about this?" Soun demanded of his still panda father.

#I had no idea!# Genma signed while dramatically grabbing at the sides of his panda face.

"You're the one I got it from!" Ranma shouted, hitting his father over the head. "Stupid old man. He was bitten before I was born."

"You tell Shampoo cure now!" Shampoo appeared in front of his face, looking eagerly at him.

"There's a problem with that." He scratched the back of his head. "There is no cure." Shampoo's face immediately fell.

"You say you tell Shampoo cure." Her eyes started to water.

"I can't tell you if there is none. Really it's not a bad thing." He tried to sound reassuring. "There's lots of good things about being a Lycan."

"Shampoo doesn't want to be a-- a-- Lycan!" She shouted pulling out both of her swords. "I kill!"

"Ahh! Not again!"

X x x x x x

"Saotome, would you mind explaining things?"

#I'm just a cute and cuddly panda!# Genma signed at his old friends question, not wanting to explain all the details. Akane was having none of this, deciding to splash him with hot water. "Ahem, as I was saying." He tried to look serious as he adjusted his clothing.

"It all began when we were training under the dreaded and terrible master." He started. "While rigorously training myself due to the Master's evil nature, I was forced to flee an angry mob into the woods. I was able to escape, only to be confronted by what I thought at the time was an oni. Since it's a martial artists duty to defeat such creatures, I, being the honorably and manly martial artists that I am, attacked."

"In the ensuing fight, I was bitten, and ended up being defeated. But instead of taking advantage of my weakened state, the creature was finally given enough time to breath, and he changed into a human before my eyes. Seeing my injuries, he stayed with me until I had recovered enough to head back to civilization. On the way he explained what he was, and what I was now. A bite from a Lycan is fatal for most people, the fact that I hadn't died within the hour was proof that I would become one. Since then I've kept it a secret and always had Ranma do the same."

"So what does this all mean?" Akane asked.

"It'd be best if you kept it quiet." He said with a shrug before taking a page from one of his son's complaints about keeping it a secret. "Think of it like another Jusenkyo curse, just a change of body."

"If it's no big deal, why 'keep it a secret'?" Nabiki asked.

"Er, there are people who would-- how do I say-- not be happy that we even exist."

"Monster hunters?" Soun wondered.

"Something like that." He admitted. "But they're vampires."

"Oh come on now." Akane rolled her eyes. "First werewolves and now vampires?"

"Now Akane, there are many crazy things that appear from time to time." Soun backed him up.

"It would just be best if you kept this to yourselves. Now Tendo, how about we get this board fixed?"

"I'll get the glue!" Soun replied excitedly, taking advantage of having something to do.

X x x x x x

"That jerk." Akane pulled off her blouse, grumbling to herself and P-chan as she got into her pajamas. "All this time, and I'm supposed to be his fiancée, and he can't even tell me something like that?" Reaching behind her back, she unhooked her bra. "He didn't even tell me about the curse until he saw me naked."

Slipping her flannel pajama top on, she grabbed P-chan to play with his ear. "Seriously, they already have magical curses, what's a little more?" Sighing, she sat down on her bed. "Jerk." A light tapping on her window made her get up to open the curtains. Ranma was hanging from the rafter.

"What do you want?" She asked angrily, sliding the window open. P-chan grunted with a similar anger.

"Lemme explain." He glanced back over his shoulder. "Can I come in before Shampoo finds me again?"

"Make it quick." She stepped out of the way, letting him flip into the room, before she slid the window shut, and put the blinds back in place. "Tell me why you didn't trust me enough to tell me about the-- whatever."

"I would have, but Pop always told me about the vampires and how they'd hunt me down if anyone found out." Ranma sat down on the floor. "I don't like hiding it."

"And now vampires exist too?" She asked, even though she had already heard about it earlier.

"I've never met any. I've never even met another Lycan besides Pop. Let alone bite someone accidentally like Shampoo."

"Way to screw over someone's life-- I think." She rolled her eyes.

"This is why I didn't tell you." Ranma shook his head before focusing on P-chan. "What's that pig doing here?"

"I found him when you were out having fun with your Chinese girlfriend." She clutched the animal tighter to her chest. "Don't think I'll let you eat him."

"The thought has crossed my mind."

"Out!" She commanded, pointing towards the door.

"Do you want me to explain or not?"

"Get on with it then."

"I'm not some movie monster, I don't lose control of myself, I just become sort of a humanoid wolf."

"So what? I'm just supposed to act like it was normal whenever the full moon appears and you turn all furry?" She asked, finding herself imagining Ranma with fur, a tail, pointy ears, and herself dressed up as little red riding hood.

"No, I choose when I want to change. Well when I was little I'd just always change at the full moon. But I change at will now."

"And Uncle Saotome?"

"He's not as good as me, he can only change during the full moon. Ever since he got his curse he hides as a panda."

"So why didn't you tell me if it wasn't a problem?"

"Cause there are people like Ryoga who would attack me for no reason, or Shampoo. She was hunting me after she saw me change back one night."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. I feel great knowing that you view me the same as some crazy girl."

"UGH! Why do you have to be so uncute?! What more do I have to explain for you to get it?"

"Oh I think you explained enough, you're a werewolf, you don't trust me, and you're hiding from vampires. Did I miss anything?"

"What's your problem?" Ranma asked angrily. "You act like I should have told you the moment we met. I told you, me and Pop are the only Lycans I've ever met, and I don't go around announcing it."

Setting P-chan down on her bed, she calmly opening up her window, purposely ignoring Ranma's attempt to make further excuses. "Like I care!" She shouted, kicking Ranma out the window.

X x x x x x

"Sheesh, she acts like she gets hunted like an animal." Ranma crossed his arms while laying on his back out in the yard. "Or even like I bit her." Thinking about Shampoo, while it was her fault, he still felt bad about infecting her. Changing someone's species against their will was bad. Rising to his feet, he heard a soft clack as Shampoo bounced off the tile on the top of the wall around the property.

"Oh come on Shampoo." He watched he approach with a single blade held in her hand. "Give it a rest already!"

"Die!" She screamed, stabbing at him with the blade.

"Enough!" Kicking the girl's hands, she released the blade to go spinning off into the air, Shampoo paused in her attack to watch the blade land point first in the grass. "I'm sorry that you got turned into a Lycan, but you gotta quit trying to kill me!" He shouted at the stunned girl.

"Never!" Shampoo screamed after regaining her wits, diving at him with her hands outstretched. Avoiding her lunge, Ranma's eyes widened when Shampoo fell to her knees, her fingers now tipped by large claws digging into the ground as her ribcage started to expand, quickly causing the material of her dress to split along the seams down the side.

"Hey wait a second." He warned. "Don't change now."

Shampoo seemed to realize that she was shifting to her Lycan form, and dove for her sword. With a bestial growl she plunged the blade into her thigh. Immediately she cried out in agony as the silver cut through and burned her flesh. Falling on to her back she thrashed her other three limbs wildly before arching her back, and rolling to the side.

"Ahh! What are you doing?!" Ranma was instantly at the girl's side to pull the sword free from her leg. The silver edge smoked and hissed, and he threw the blade away into the koi pond. Quickly tearing off a piece of cloth from the bottom of his shirt, he wrapped up the freely bleeding wound, knowing that with the silver no longer touching, it would heal within a half hour.

"Why would you do that?" He asked, cinching up the makeshift bandage, and taking a look at the crazy girl's face.

"Shampoo want you die, Shampoo can then die self." She said while looking away from him with tears streaming down her face.

"I can kind of understand you wanting to kill me and all." He admitted. "But you're immortal now, why would you want to die when you don' have to?"

"I-- Immortal?" Shampoo asked, not understanding the word.

"You'll live forever. If you don't kill yourself with silver that is." He tried to give a disarming laugh, feeling really out of place about trying to explain being a Lycan to someone. His tone did little to help Shampoo's outlook, and the girl started to cry harder.

"Please stop crying!" He pleaded, panicking over the sobs Shampoo was emitting. "Really it's not a bad thing. How about we go hunting? That always makes me feel better and it's such a nice night. Don't you feel like you're caged here, like you want to just go out and run?" Night had already come to Nerima, and the full moon look large in the sky as it began its assent. It was nights like this that made living in an area populated by humans hard.

Shampoo didn't answer but she did stop crying to look away from him. "Shampoo hurt, she no can." She said hesitantly, and Ranma could see her eyes flickering up to the moon. As a new Lycan, the celestial body no doubt had a far greater pull on her than it did him. He figured it must be torture for her to keep the animal within bottled up, especially if she was willing to use silver to force herself to be a human.

"Well see, that's another benefit, you'll be all healed up in just a little bit." He explained, Lycan healing was nothing to scoff at. He had broken bones heal faster than paper cuts on mortals. "Come on." Picking Shampoo up, she winced in pain from her leg, expecting it to hurt more than it did. The wound however was already healing, and had stopped bleeding. "There's this nice forest a couple kilometers west of here.

"Put Shampoo down!" She commanded, giving a few weak struggles as he started leaping across roof tops. Quickly her complaints stopped, and she grabbed on to him. Ranma wondered why she was worried about being dropped, he knew that Shampoo could easily deal with a fall from the height he was at back when she was human. He had seen her do it. So he didn't know why she was suddenly being so compliant. Shrugging off the detail, he concentrated on hurrying to the place he knew before she changed.

X x x x x x

"Akane could you go get Uncle Saotome and Ranma?" Kasumi had asked her from the table. Breakfast was already being served, and neither of the house guests had come down from their room.

"Why me?" She asked, noting that both Nabiki and her father were there for the task, and had been long before her.

"Why?" Kasumi asked, taken back that she would disagree.

"She and Ranma are having another fight." Nabiki answered and Kasumi nodded her head in agreement.

"I am not." She grumbled, glaring at her elder sisters, and leaving the room. The task of waking up the Saotome's always seemed to fall to her, but she really wasn't interested in seeing Ranma this morning. Sliding open the door open with a little too much force, she flicked on the light. "Ranma, time to get up. It's a school day remember?"

The sight that greeted her was not a welcome one. Genma was in panda form snoring loudly on his futon. Ranma on the other hand was sprawled out on his back, the only thing keeping his modesty was the blanket pulled up to his waist. Also under the blanket was Shampoo who was equally nude, her bare skin pressed up against Ranma as they cuddled together. Both looked filthy, covered in dirt, their hair matted and out of any braids she had seen last night.

'That- that- that- that.' Akane couldn't even form an opinion of the scene in front of her. Proof positive of Ranma's perversion was staring her in the face. HER fiance, naked with another woman, looking like they had spent a wild night out in the woods. 'No wait, I have no proof that they are naked. Shampoo could just be like Ranma and have no feminine modesty.' She reasoned.

Her concession only lasted a few seconds. Ranma yawned and stretched in his sleep, which caused Shampoo to pull a leg up along Ranma's body, moving the blanket off of them. 'Yup definitely nude.' She blushed at their complete lack of modesty, as well as the implications of what the two being naked together meant before shutting the door quickly.

Too angry to think straight, she simply returned to the table in order to have breakfast. Ranma could spend all the time he wanted to with that girl for all she cared.

"Akane, weren't you going to wake up Ranma?" Her father asked. Akane slowly turned her head to glare hatefully down at the Tendo patriarch, a barely audible growl coming from her.

"So what if I was?" She asked, her voice filled with venom.

"Oh don't growl at me like that!" Her father wailed, turning away from her glare to weep into his hands.

"It's alright daddy." Kasumi tried to console the distraught man.

"Am I the only sane one in this house?" Akane lamented, taking a seat to start eating at a brisk pace.

X x x x x x

After pulling away from Shampoo's nude form, Ranma had donned a pair of boxers and a tank top, to sit off to the side. His father had woken and left the room, indicating that he was searching for hot water. When he had woken, he had pulled the blanket up to cover her body, ashamed of himself for falling asleep in such a position with a beautiful girl he hardly knew. Akane was his fiancee, he was engaged, no matter how stupid the reason. And Akane was cute when she let her guard down, she could be nice, and he had fun being around her.

But Akane was a mortal, a human, and that limited what he could do with her. He could never do what he did last night with her, she could never be fully part of his life. The risk was simply too great to try and turn her into a Lycan, and he would never force her or try. Shampoo though, was a Lycan now, that by itself attracted him to her, that both of her forms were so beautiful gave him even more reason to feel like he should pursue her. He could relax around her, let the animal that dwelled within him out, and enjoy that side of her as well.

As strong as Shampoo was, like Akane, there was a sweet and tender side to her as well. Ranma could remember the feel of the girl in his arms as he hurried to get to a more private location, the way she had after a short time had curled up against him, and how she had no longer looked at him with scorn and hatred. 'I never really noticed how cute she was. What with her trying to cut my head off and all.'

Sighing, he put his face in his hands. 'I'm so confused.'

Hearing the soft rustle of fabric, he looked up to see Shampoo sitting up, clutching the thick blanket over her chest. Yawning, she rubbed at her eyes with the back of a wrist.

"Morning." He greeted, hoping that she would remain in a good mood, and not becoming both homicidal and suicidal at the same time.

"Shampoo need bath." The girl looked down at herself, and tried to run a hand through her long matted hair. "Comb too."

"Well the bath is downstairs on the far side of the house." He informed the Chinese girl, who pulled the blanket away from her body enough to check her state of undress. "You don't have clothes hidden somewhere do you?" He asked.

X x x x x x

Kasumi hummed to herself as she cleaned off the table. Breakfast had been served, and her sisters had left for school, having graduated the previous year, she had inherited most of the daily routine around the home. Her father and left the home with Genma to run some errands, and to just get out of the home, leaving her alone with Ranma who was still asleep upstairs.

Her own thoughts on their future family members being non-human were subdued. It wasn't really her place to judge them for it. On top of that her father seemed serious about continuing the engagement, so she should trust his judgment until proven wrong.

The wood floor outside creaked, and she turned to find a figure walking by, turning her head to look in the room. At first Kasumi thought it was Ranma in female form, due to Ranma being the only other person in the home, and the large black Chinese shirt acting as a mini dress. No, this was Shampoo, the recently turned Lycan girl, who looked positively filthy. Her hair was a complete mess, a large smudge of dirt marred her cheek, and Kasumi could even see dirt underneath all of her nails.

"Oh, hello Shampoo." She greeted, trying to be polite. "Did you-- spend the night?"

"No." Shampoo answered slowly. "Where bath?"

"At the end of the hall." She informed. "Please be sure to wash up before you get into the water." She called as the girl padded away, fretting that Shampoo, being a foreigner, might simply get into the hot water in her filthy state. "Ooh." She wringed her hands nervously, not wanting to add cleaning out the furo to her list of things to do today. It was just cleaning up after breakfast and then she could get some knitting done.

X x x x x x

It took Shampoo a considerable amount of time to untangle and clean her long hair. When she had changed last night, the first time since being bitten, it had shortened, and then lengthened when she had changed back. As she gently brushed out her long locks, it occurred to her that she had been dreading what she had freely done last night.

After being accidentally bitten, she had attempted to kill herself with her silver blade when her body first started to change. The action had stopped the metamorphosis, in exchange for the agony of silver burning her flesh. Last night the change had been painful, less so than the silver, and Ranma had explained that it should now only be uncomfortable from now on. The pain of the transformation seemed a small price to pay for the euphoric feeling that form had awakened.

Pausing in her grooming, she picked a small piece of bone from between her teeth, and carelessly threw it to the side. No doubt that had come from the deer she and Ranma had devoured. An act that should have sickened her, but she had done so with the same exuberance as the other Lycan.

"Hey Shampoo." Ranma's voice carried through the door outside. "I took some clothes from Nabiki that should fit." It took her a few seconds to translate what the cause of her curse had said, and she didn't answer. "Well, whenever you come out they're on the dryer." Listening to his footsteps retreat from the outer room, she slowly set the comb down, and hugged herself.

'How can I ever return home now?' She sniffled, remembering her own pursuit of Ranma simply for what he was. Other warriors would do the same, perhaps even her own Great Grandmother, who may seek to expunge the shame of her failure permanently.

X x x x x x

"Why am I even bothering with school?" Ranma slipped into class during a break, receiving some brief whispers from two friends that Akane was on the rampage. His response was to wonder what was new, and sit down. When lunch finally rolled around he went to find out what she was so upset about, only to face a brick wall.

"I don't want to talk to you." Akane informed him simply while eating, without even looking at him.

"If it was about last night, I forgive you, I mean-- I guess if I found out that you were vampire, I'd act goofy too."

"You forgive me?" She asked angrily before calming herself. "Whatever Ranma, it's not like it matters."

"Well that's good, it's not exactly something I can change." Eating some food himself, he stopped at Akane's stare. "What?"

"You're a dog." She slapped him on his left cheek, the harsh crack instantly stopped the other conversations. Blinking several times, he watched her storm from the stunned room.

"Was it something I said?" He asked, glancing around at the other students for support. Finding none, he chased after Akane, tracking her to her shoe locker at the entrance. "What's your problem now?" He demanded.

"My problem? My problem?" She didn't look at him, continuing to put on her shoes. "Me, I'm perfectly fine." Akane gave him a brief look like he was the stupidest person ever. "And do you know why I'm fine? Cause we're through, as far as I'm concerned this thing that we had, this stupid engagement is over." Shoving roughly past him, Ranma didn't follow.

X x x x x x

Shampoo had borrowed some scissors from the nice domestic girl, and was trying to shape her hair into something presentable. The transformation hadn't restored her hair to its previous state perfectly, and she may have to choose a shorter, simpler hair style. Done with cutting, she twisted her head side to side, checking to make sure that it was even in the mirror.

Taking a pair of small ribbons she had also borrowed, she tied a lock of hair in front of each ear. The clothes Ranma had found for her were a pair of tight jean shorts to mid thigh, and a scoop neck black t shirt. The lacy panties were a decent fit, the bra had been too small in the band so she had discarded it.

Returning the brush and scissors to the nice girl, Shampoo came face to face with another of the women residing in the home. If she remembered right, the girl's name was Akane, and she had a bit of a temper. The death glare she received from the short haired girl was almost enough to make her apprehensive. Instead, all it did was make her more defiant even though she was in the girl's home.

By what right did this pampered city girl have to look at her with such disdain? Was she angry that Shampoo had spent a night in the forest with Ranma? It seemed that the two had something between them, though she hadn't been able to pick up what. Even if they were in a relationship, Akane was in no position to dictate terms to her. She was the superior, physically she could have broken the girl in two even before being bitten. Shampoo was also easily better looking, a fact that seemed obvious when the other girl's eyes lingered on certain parts of her anatomy jealously. Since the girl was willing to almost challenge her, she obviously wasn't very smart either.

"You something say?" She asked in broken Japanese, challenging the girl with her tone.

"If you want him, you got him." The girl said back with a sad edge to her voice, pushing past her roughly.

'Want him?' She thought, taking a moment to realize that Akane had meant Ranma. As revolting as the thought was initially to her. She had been beaten by him several times, and last night she had willingly submitted to his directions. Would it really be so bad to submit again to the law? He was strong, handsome, and caring. Even as a beast he hadn't changed, surely if he had dark impulses, he would have taken advantage of it then.

Of course, then there was the law to worry about. Any repercussions she may have, could be forgiven if she secured a strong husband, and they could be made equally worse if she ignored the law.

X x x x x x

After school was out, Ranma didn't return to the Tendo home, accepting the offer from his friends Hiroshi and Daisuke to go out and get something to eat. This turned out to be a ploy by the two humans in order to badger him about his relationship with Akane. Something that was currently hanging over his head like a dark cloud.

Akane couldn't be angry about him being a Lycan. Well she was, but that simply couldn't be the reason for her recent outburst. She was too angry, too sure in her belief that he had done something horribly wrong. 'Wait, she didn't see me and Shampoo this morning did she?' He knew how bad that would have looked for someone like Akane who's jumps in logic could be pure insanity.

"Dude, what's up between you and Akane this time?"

"If you guys are fighting, does that mean Akane's free? Think you'll stop being engaged?"

"Never wanted to be in the first place." He absently responded to one of his friends badgering, too concerned over Akane's latest snit to focus much on what they were saying. Though mention of the engagement cut into his concentration enough to be heard.

"Ya know, whatever happened to you during that fight with that Ryoga guy?" Hiroshi asked.

"Oh yea, and who was that girl? She looked a lot like you." Daisuke added.

"Twin like."

"Her?" He remembered how a crowd had found him in female form fighting Ryoga.

"Yes her!" Daisuke had fake tears streaming from his eyes. "Why do you always keep the cute girls to yourself?!"

"Hey wait a sec." He shifted in his seat. "What makes you think I have cute girls after me?" He asked.

"You're engaged to Akane, what more proof do you need?" Hiroshi asked.

"Akane? Cute? Are you sure you're talking about the same Akane? She's just about the most uncute girl I've ever met." Ranma answered before a soft body dropped into his lap. On high alert in an instant that someone could sneak up on him, he relaxed slightly when he noticed that it was Shampoo who had taken a seat on his legs. "Shampoo, what are you doing?"

"Shampoo find." She was wearing the clothing he had borrowed without permission from Nabiki, with her hair returned to the way it had been yesterday. Without hesitation she wrapped her arms around his neck, smiling at him with a strange mixture of happiness and resentment.

"Yea okay, so?" He gulped, catching the jealous stares from across the table.

"Ranma-- you I love." She proclaimed, leaning forward to kiss him deeply on the lips. Ranma's eyebrows rose to meet his hairline, and his face developed a bright blush. Across the table, the jealous looks had changed to all out shock.

"Hey Daisuke, let's leave these two lovebirds alone." Hiroshi stood up from his chair.

"Yes, let's go see if Akane's home, so I can console her."

"What?! No way, I'm going to help Akane get over Ranma!"

"Hey wait!" Ranma called after his two so called friends as they quickly left. "Shampoo, what's this about?" He demanded, pushing Shampoo away from him.

"I find this before come here." A small crudely booklet was produced and put into his hands.

"Joketsusoku Law" He read the cover before noticing that Shampoo was still intruding upon his personal space. "Could you at least sit in the other chair?"

Shampoo nodded and quickly shifted over to the chair next to him. Flipping open the book, he was unsure on how this would explain her sudden declaration of love. "This is in Chinese." He pointed out to the other Lycan, who flipped it to a page that was in Japanese.

'Hmm, Joketsusoku Law, In the event that a woman warrior is defeated by an outsider if her opponent is a woman, she must give her the Kiss of Death and kill her.' Ranma now had an answer to why Shampoo had tried to kiss him in his sleep. "However, if her opponent is a man, she must make him her husband.'

"Oh crap."

X x x x x x

Nabiki watched with amusement as Ranma and their seemingly new houseguest tried to get along. Not as quick to jump to illogical conclusions as her younger sister, she could at least appreciate the situation for what it was. Here were money making opportunities. Not many, but the possibility was there. The threat of people who were literally called 'Death Dealers' arriving at their home to kill the three Lycans, and maybe anyone else involved was a huge drawback, if they actually existed that is.

Till such time that the Death Dealers were proven to be just a myth, she would operate under the assumption that they were real. After all, werewolves and magical curses were now proven to be real, other myths being real would not be out of the realm of possibility. Genma also didn't seem the type to use such heavy handed threats, adding to the odds of vampires existing.

Sipping on a soft drink, she found Ranma's attempts to dissuade Shampoo to be rather humorous. Shampoo was very affectionate, rubbing up against Ranma at every opportunity. Ranma wouldn't always push her away right away, hesitating or enjoying the action until he realized what Shampoo was doing, at which point he would move away from the Chinese girl. The two had circled the living room three times now, and it was too bad that her tomboy sister wasn't here to get in on the festivities.

Ranma was clearly flustered by this display, his face often turning a nice shade of red. Nabiki wasn't stupid, her sister had a love at first sight thing going with Ranma. Up until the other day, they may have complained, they may have whined, but they spent a good deal of time around each other. But the arrival of Shampoo had thrown that out of whack in an instant. Shampoo was like Ranma, by Ranma's own admission he had never met another of his kind. So it wasn't hard for Nabiki to see the rusty gears in the Saotome boy's head grinding to work on viewing Shampoo as more than a friend, or possibly the reverse.

Honestly she wasn't sure how she felt about that. For one, she didn't really care about Ranma all that much. Sure he was nice eye candy, but he didn't have any money, or seemed to care about it past basic necessities. But her little sister did like him for some unexpected reason. Her father also really wanted this engagement to go through. So she would just have to remain neutral, and make her fun with everyone as usual.

X x x x x x

"Here you go, your own futon." Ranma announced, presenting the bedding to Shampoo, who refused to leave him be. Her face scrunched up into a pout, obviously disliking the idea. Not that Ranma really cared what Shampoo thought of it, it was bed time, and he was tired of her antics.

"Why no sleep with groom?"

"Because I'm not your groom." He pointed out.

"Is law." She restated her earlier justification.

"That law is archaic Shampoo, marry the guys, kill the girls, it's just silly."

"Law is law."

"Yea, well Ranma's law says sleep on your own bed." He pointed to the new futon for emphasis. Reluctantly, Shampoo sat down, and looked at it disapprovingly. "Good night." He told the Chinese girl and climbed under his own blanket. Rubbing at his eyes, he was looking forwards to a good sleep, which wasn't what Shampoo wanted to give him because she lifted up his blanket, and laid down next to him.

"Give it a rest Shampoo." He pleaded, wondering what it would take to convince her to give him any kind of space.

"Shampoo alone now, just want be with groom." She said sadly.

"Whatever." He sighed, not putting it together right away that the rest of Shampoo's village might be as homicidal as Shampoo had been. "Oh-- I'm sorry again for biting you." He told her lamely, having no clue on how he could make her feel better. It was her fault anyways. The purple haired girl didn't respond, but cuddled up next to him. Since she wasn't attempting anything more than that, he didn't kick her out.

X x x x x x

The next morning, Shampoo followed her groom on his way to school. Ranma was trying to explain how they shouldn't be wed, but Shampoo had seen him notice her, and didn't believe a word of it. Even though she knew that he was interested in her, something about how he smelled told her he was attracted to her, for some reason he continued to be concerned for the angry girl, Akane. Said girl having stayed at someone elses home the previous night.

Pausing, her future husband seemed to notice her, so she lowered herself on the roof of the home she was crossing. He didn't stop long, before taking off at a light jog towards his destination. Laying down on her stomach at the crest of the roof, she placed her head in both hands, watching him leap up onto a fence and continue running.

'Maybe if I just don't tell Great Grandmother, everything will be fine?' She wondered. As smart as her elder was, even she couldn't know everything. Keep any lunar activities under wraps, and maybe if she grew confident she could drop a few hints Cologne's way, see about breaking it to her family gently. It could work out.

"Ah, young love." An elderly female voice said from above her in Chinese, causing Shampoo's eyes to widen in horror. "Why I remember back when I met my husband, it was a cold winters day, and I was just a young woman, barely older than yourself. Of course in my time I was considered old to still be looking for a husband."

"Great Grandmother!" Shampoo recoiled from her family member, who was perched on long white gnarled staff, equally long white hair blowing briefly in front of her face. "How- how- how did find me?"

"Far too easily, it seems you've forgotten much of your training, and common sense. So, tell me what it was that convinced you that running away from home and stealing our priceless family heirloom was so urgent." The wizened old woman leaned forward, her large eyes boring down into her.

X x x x x x

Author Notes:

None, zip, zero, nada, don't feel like explaining or talking about anything.


	2. Miss Part Time

"Speech"

'Thought'

X x x x x x

Digging into his locker, Ranma pulled out his shoes, and glanced to his right past several students to Akane who was doing the same thing. It was probably for the best that Akane had stayed at someone's house last night rather than return to the Tendo home. With how Shampoo had clung to him, the only result would have been a fight. He was so engrossed in trying to figure out a way to approach Akane that he didn't catch Hiroshi and Daisuke before they had surrounded him.

"Tell us man, you get anywhere with that girl?"

"I know I wouldn't have been able to keep my hands off of her."

"You can barely keep your hands off yourself." Ranma replied sarcastically wondering why he considered these two to be friends.

"So you can understand my problem with a hot chick like that."

"Sooo－ details man, don't keep us in suspense."

"Nothing happened." He changed his shoes in a flash.

"You're not gay are you?"

"WHAT?" Ranma said far too loudly, drawing the attention of the nearby students. "Uh－ that is to say－ you're wrong."

"So something did happen!"

"It must have been something weird and freaky; I bet Ranma has some weird fetishes."

He had heard enough and lightly smacked both of them in the back of the head. "Nothing－ happened." He simmered. "She's just a crazy girl who needed a place to stay for the night."

"I noticed that you didn't mention sleeping."

"They were too busy for that of course."

Ranma narrowed his eyes at the pair who finally decided that it was a good idea not to poke at him anymore, and ran off to bother someone else. Picking up his bookbag, he headed over to talk to Akane.

"Hey." He greeted, unsure on how to smooth over the issue with Shampoo.

"What is it?" Akane seemed to be in a better mood.

Glancing around to make sure there weren't any eavesdroppers, he continued. "Nothing happened between me and Shampoo, alright?"

"Why would I think there was anything going on?" She asked while fully knowing the answer to that.

Glancing around again, he really didn't want his answer to be overheard. Most of the students had filed towards their classes that would be starting soon, so there the few stragglers were in a rush to do the same. "Clothes don't survive the change. When we got back we were tired, and just passed out on my futon. That was it."

"And I'm supposed to believe that? Don't think I didn't notice you said nothing about what you did out in the woods all night when you were－ whatever it is you are."

"Do you want to know what we did in the woods? Mostly we ran around, we ate a deer, and then we made our way to the house before changing back."

"You ate a deer?" Akane asked while looking at him in horror and disgust. "Raw?"

"Akane, I'm not human remember? And when I change－ things get simpler. Eating a deer is no big thing, just food." He answered with a casual shrug.

"You're serious that nothing happened?" Akane searched his eyes for some sign of lying.

"Nothing."

"Fine－ I guess I overreacted." She admitted.

"It's great that you can admit that you were wrong." Slapping her on the back he laughed, ignoring the vein that appeared on her forehead. "Jumping to weird conclusions all the time can't be healthy and you'll probably get wrinkles soon."

"Idiot!" Akane yelled and hit him.

When the hurting stopped, he found that he had been shoved through a stack of lockers with his head poking out one side, and his feet through the other. Trying to squirm out, he found that he was firmly stuck. "Hey Akane! Little help here?" He called out and received no response. "Stupid violent gorilla tomboy." He grumbled and hung his head.

X x x x x x

With normality restored, the day dragged out normally once he had freed himself from the shoe lockers. The only worry that he really had now was what Shampoo was up to while he was away. She appeared to have settled down greatly since finally allowing herself to change, but he was still wary of her randomly attacking people who might annoy her.

He was returning home after class ended with Akane and making idle conversation. When a strange feeling of dread fell over him. Shaking it off, he entered the Tendo home behind Akane, and after kicking off his shoes decided to lounge in the living room to relax before dinner.

"Woah! What's that thing?" He asked, finding that everyone minus Nabiki were sitting around the table talking to what looked like some shriveled up and shaved monkey. It had white hair as long as the body, human clothing, and giant eyes. Ranma never saw the target of his inquiry move, but he certainly felt the long gnarled staff it had strike him in the side of the head.

"That hurt you old monkey!" He rubbed at the small lump.

"Shampoo tells me you defeated her."

"It can talk!" He exclaimed, earning another hit on the opposite side of the head.

"She is Great-Grandmother Cologne." Shampoo sidled up next to him and introduced.

"Don't you mean great great great great?" He asked the other Lycan and was hit on top of his head this time. "Stop doing that!"

"Hmm, he doesn't seem that strong." Cologne hopped up on her staff and balanced on it.

"I'll show you strong!" He challenged and tried to sweep her perch from underneath her. His foot missed as she easily jumped up and over his attack before leaning in close to his face.

"Are you going to be a man and marry my Shampoo?"

"No you old hag!" Trying to grab her by her bulky clothing, he found nothing but air.

"That's too bad." The old woman's voice came from behind his head.

'She's fast.' Out of instinct he dove forward out into the yard and avoided being stabbed in the back by the point of the staff.

"Decent reflexes." Cologne commented. "Thick in the head though."

Narrowing his eyes, Ranma cracked his knuckles. "Thick in the head?"

"But we can work on that." Cologne nodded before looking at Shampoo. "He'll make a good husband."

"I ain't nobodies husband you old bag." He stormed up to the old woman.

"You could be her bride if you wanted."

"What?" He paused long enough for Cologne to lightly poke him in the center of his chest.

"But you'd still have to produce a child." The old woman cackled madly. "You'll be begging to marry my Shampoo soon enough."

"Yea right." He scoffed, rubbing briefly at the spot where she had poked him.

"Normally I would take off, but I was just discussing use of the spare room here." Cologne hopped off of her staff. "So I'll just walk down the hall."

"Daddy you let that old woman rent out the spare room?" Akane asked Soun for him.

"It's just for the night." The Tendo patriarch answered. (1)

"And she said she would make us all the ramen we could eat while she's here." Genma added, with that clearly being his reason to go along with keeping Shampoo and her ancient relative around. The old panda may even be considering Shampoo's archaic laws for some other reason since he didn't seem to be doing anything to stop it.

"Idiots." Both he and Akane said at the same time.

"Shampoo so happy live now for real with Airen." The bubbly girl glomped on to him.

"Not now Shampoo." He tried to squirm from the girl's grasp.

"Shampoo still want sleep in Airen's bed like did last night."

Ranma froze at that phrasing and turned to Akane. "It's not what it sounds like."

"You－ you－ pervert!" Akane yelled and grabbed the table to flatten him and Shampoo to the floor.

"Why did I want her to start talking to me again?" He groaned.

X x x x x x

"Oh my this looks wonderful." Kasumi gazed in wonder at all the food the elderly Cologne had prepared with Shampoo. She had been wary about letting them have the run of the kitchen for the night, but that seemed to be an unfounded fear.

"Thank you." Cologne responded. "When I finally get cleared to start up my restaurant this is what we'll be serving. Just some old family recipes."

"I don't know if I want anything that old ghoul made." Ranma said rudely while actually eating his bowl along with Genma.

"Sure you don't." Nabiki commented snidely.

"What? I'm hungry." The pigtailed boy whined. "And it's actually good!"

"Shampoo make too special ramen for Airen." The Chinese girl sat down next to Ranma. Kasumi could sense her younger sister's eyes boring into the girl from the adjacent side, and prepared to quickly grab the food should she decide to use the table as a weapon.

"What's special about it?" Ranma asked with noodles hanging from his mouth.

"No be special if told." Shampoo shook a finger disapprovingly and grabbed her own bowl to start eating at a leisurely pace.

"You wouldn't happen to be willing to share the recipe?" Kasumi asked after trying some of her own food. She was being incredibly rude by asking, but compared to how everyone had been acting recently, she felt that she was within bounds.

"Family－ recipes." Cologne stressed and Kasumi let the matter drop. "So Son in law, when did you visit Jusenko?" The elderly woman asked suddenly.

"Why do you want to know?" Ranma asked defensively.

"I just want to know how－ comfortable you are with it?" Colognes large eyes seemed to twinkle with some kind of hidden glee.

"I'm not." Ranma answered, though Kasumi didn't really see how that was possible. Just the other day she had seen the pigtailed teen flirt her way into getting a guy to give her free food. An action that Kasumi thought was absolutely shameless.

"That's really too bad." Cologne commented absently.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ranma demanded.

"Oh nothing." The elderly woman cackled lightly.

"Crazy old ghoul." The black haired teen muttered.

X x x x x x

Sitting on Akane's bed, Ranma penciled in the answer to a math problem before rubbing at his eyes. Akane was sitting at her desk also doing the same assignment. Shampoo had been dragged off by that shriveled old monkey in a smock to do who knows what. He was thankful for the break from Shampoo's attentions. After the events of the past few days he was mentally drained.

'Full moons should only be on the weekend.' Sliding his back down the wall, he closed his eyes to give them a rest.

"Hey Ranma, do you have the answer to sixteen?" Akane drew his attention.

"Here." He handed her his notepad. "I need to take a break anyways."

"Going to find Shampoo?" Akane asked in a joking tone.

"That's the last thing I want to do." As attracted to her as he was, Shampoo was grating on him. Mostly because she was his responsibility. Genma couldn't be expected to explain what being a Lycan meant and the responsibilities that came with it. Hopefully she didn't find reason to go after Akane, all it would take would be a bite, and the youngest Tendo would be eliminated.

"You know, with how badly Shampoo reacted to you being a werewolf, do you think she told Cologne?" Akane asked and he sat up a little straighter.

"Probably not." He replied in a small voice. 'Just what I need, more people after my hide.'

"I'd watch out Ranma, she seemed really good. You couldn't even touch her."

"In a real fight I could take her." He boasted. "Sides, I don't plan to change again until at least the next full moon. So there's no way she could unless Shampoo told her."

"Well if she does, don't destroy the house while she kills you." Akane joked.

"Your room will be first." He slid off the bed. "I'm going to bed."

"But it's only eight thirty."

"I know." He yawned. "Hopefully I can get some good sleep before my old man starts snoring."

"Good plan."

X x x x x x

Ranma woke up the next morning to the sound of rain impacting the roof without having an extra body underneath his futon. He was a little disappointed by that because it did feel nice to be next to Shampoo, especially when she wasn't being clingy. On the other hand, it was nice not having to worry about Akane walking in if they were in a compromising situation.

Hearing his father shift, Ranma opened an eye to look over, and see Genma slowly getting out from underneath his blanket. 'Sneaky old man, I'm not going in that stupid pond today.' Closing his eye, he listened carefully as Genma slid the window open, letting in a cool breeze, and allowing the sound of rain to hit his ears directly. As gently as Genma could, he lifted Ranma up and carried him towards the window before preparing to throw him out. Ranma waited till Genma had started his throw forward before he jumped out of Genma's grasp and grabbed the elder Saotome's arms to throw him instead.

"Not today boy!" Genma grabbed Ranma's own wrists and planting his feet on the outside of the house was able to throw him out into the rain.

"Stupid old man!" He cursed, his voice shifting into it's female state mid-sentence. Landing on the wet grass next to the koi pond, she slipped and fell on her backside. "Gah." Hopping up to her feet, she was glad all she had on was a tank top and boxers because she would be soaked by the time Genma was a black and blue panda. 'That's weird, this rain feels warm－ cept it's cold out.'

#Are you ready boy?# Genma signed to her, the rain having turned him into a panda.

"I'll show you who's ready!" She answered, charging towards him.

Ten minutes later, Ranma trudged inside through the door next to the living room with Genma in tow. 'He's been holding back.' She fumed at her inability to score a decisive victory over him. Grabbing the panda by his fur, she pointed to the floor. "Pandas stay outside until they dry." She smiled toothily.

Cologne hopped on her staff up to the entrance. "I would have to agree with Son in law."

#I'll get a towel# Genma ignored both of them to try stepping inside but was stopped and thrown back with enough force to lightly crack the surrounding wall. Ranma looked at the spot Genma had been in, then to where he was currently lying, then back again.

'What kind of monster is this old lady?' She hadn't even seen Cologne move. One second the old woman was balancing on her staff, the next she was standing on her short legs with the staff extended, and Genma flying through the air.

"Aren't you cold Son in law?" Cologne looked her up and down.

"Nah, actually this rain feels really good." She answered, curious over the old woman's question. "Why?"

"Marry my Shampoo."

"I'm not marrying anybody." She retorted. "And you didn't answer my question."

"Marry Shampoo and I'll answer." Cologne cackled and hopped off.

"Crazy old ghoul." She muttered and glanced back to see Genma starting to lumber to his feet, before heading off to the bath.

As a necessity, she kept a clean pair of clothes in the changing room ever since a week before Ryoga showed up when Kasumi and Nabiki decided to make her play dress up with Akane's ill-fitting clothing. Maybe if they actually fit, and were more her style, she wouldn't mind getting a few outfits that were sized for this body. Just to avoid how huge and bulky his clothing became on her. 'Ya know, shoes that fit would be nice.'

Stripping out of her wet clothing, she removed the cover to the furo, and found that Kasumi had helpfully filled it already. Removing the string keeping her hair braided, she filled up the wash bucket with lukewarm water to wash her hair. 'I can't believe that they let that crazy old mummy stay here.' She shook her head and then winced when some shampoo got in her eyes. (2)

'She must've hit the old man harder than I thought if he's not in here yet.' Ranma didn't think Genma would bother with keeping the floor dry before stumbling in to take a bath. 'Oh well, less panda fur to deal with.' Drying off her hair to get rid of the excess water, she tied it into a simple ponytail just to keep it out of the way until she could dry it better.

Planting her hands on the side of the furo, she swung out her legs to hover over the water in a sitting position, before dropping in.

X x x x x x

Akane was just sitting down at the table with a glass of juice when the most pain screamed she had ever heard echoed through the house. Hastily setting down her drink, she took off for the bathroom with Kasumi, Genma, and Soun in tow. The scream died out before they got there to be replaced by pained yells about the water being too hot and further exclamations of pain.

"Ranma!" She yelled bursting through the interior door to find her fiancé rapidly pouring cold water over her body, especially her lower half.

#What's the matter boy?# Genma signed as a panda.

"What's all this then?" Soun asked.

Seeing that Ranma looked physically fine, other than half her body being an angry red, Akane realized something else quickly. "Out!" She shoved the two fathers from the room.

"But Akane." Her father protested.

#We're here to help!# Genma held up another sign.

"Then you don't have to ogle Ranma." She answered and slammed the door shut. "Honestly."

"Ranma, what's going on?" Kasumi stopped the boy turned girl from pouring more water on herself. Ranma's lower body had rapidly turned from red back to it's normal color.

"That water is boiling!" Ranma pointed an accusing finger at the furo.

"But that water has been there since last night." Kasumi ran a hand through the water. "It's barely warm."

"No way!" Ranma was up on her feet and shoved her hand in the water only to withdraw it instantly. "I'm telling you it's boiling!"

Colognes loud cackling laugh interrupted them as the door to the furo slid open. The old woman hopped in on her staff to perch herself in the middle of the bath. "Having troubles Son in law?"

"You!" Ranma accused. "You did this somehow!"

"That's right I did." Cologne's ancient face split into a large grin. "Yesterday I touched a special pressure point that has made your entire body as sensitive as a cat's tongue. As you've found out, even lukewarm water will now scald you."

"Why would you do that?" Akane demanded.

"I'll give you the cure if you agree to be Shampoo's groom." The elderly woman answered.

"Fat chance you old buzzard!" Ranma shouted and launched herself at Cologne. There was a flash of movement from Cologne's right arm just as Ranma was about to grab the old woman, sending Ranma down into the tub with a splash.

"AIIIEEE!" Ranma was out of the water before the curse could even activate and back over to the faucet to get more cold water.

"Ha ha ha ha ha." Cologne laughed at Ranma's pain. "When you're ready to marry my Shampoo, stop by our restaurant." Hopping from the bath with a splash of water, the old woman was gone before Akane could see her leave.

"Oh my." Kasumi whispered.

"That old ghoul!" Ranma cursed. "I'll－ I'll－ I'll－." The girl sputtered in rage, unable to come up with a suitable threat on the spot.

"Easy Ranma." Akane grabbed a towel and wrapped it around Ranma's chest in case anyone else decided to barge in.

"Why should I calm down? If you haven't heard I can't change back!" Ranma snapped while taking a step away from her. Akane didn't have an immediate answer to that, or the rather loud growl that came from the smaller girl.

"I think what Akane means to say is that Cologne has a way to fix things and may even want you to pursue her for it." Kasumi supplied, making both her and Ranma blink several times at the eldest Tendo sister. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No." Akane answered. "I think you hit the nail on the head."

"Did that old bag say where they were opening the restaurant?" Ranma asked.

"But it's a school day." Akane pointed out.

"You want me to go as a girl?"

"That's a good point." She conceded. Students didn't normally show up to class as the opposite gender.

X x x x x x

With an umbrella overhead, Ranma found the future site of Cologne's restaurant easy enough. A crew was currently putting up the sign in the rain that read 'Nekohanten'. The building itself was two stories tall and would be one of the larger restaurants in the immediate area.

"Oi, is that old monkey around?" She asked the nearest worker who was moving boxes through a small alley on the side into a door to the back of the shop.

He looked at her suspiciously, obviously taken back by her gruff attitude. "I don't know any 'old monkeys'." He answered.

"Her name's Cologne, short old lady with a big staff." She clarified.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Ah Son in law, do come in." Cologne's voice called from inside.

"Hmmph." Ranma pushed past the man to enter the shop.

"Son in law?" The mover asked behind her.

Spotting Cologne sitting on a counter with a cash register on it, she stormed up to the old woman. "Fix what you did to me!" She demanded.

"Ready to marry Shampoo?" Cologne asked, unconcerned that Ranma was ready to tear out the woman's throat.

"I'm not marrying anybody!" She yelled and tried to kick Cologne. Her target snaked out a hand to redirect her kick straight upwards and to spin her completely around. Just as she was coming back to face Cologne, she found the fat end of the staff jabbed into her forehead. Crying out, she rocketed out the front door to crash into a pile of cardboard boxes.

"Dirty old ghoul!" She exclaimed and charged past the shocked workers to go back inside. Cologne hadn't moved from her spot and this time Ranma attempted a knife hand strike at the woman's neck. The Joketsuzoku member tried to deflect her strike with the staff but this time Ranma caught it. "HA!"

"Oh?" Cologne twisted and twirled the staff wrenching Ranma's arm into a painful position before she was spun around in mid-air to face plant heavily into the linoleum floor. Back on her feet in an instant, She hoped to take Cologne off guard, but found only the woman's staff resting lightly against her forehead.

Gulping, her eyes crossed wondering when the pain was going to come. 'How can she be so much better than me? She hasn't even moved from that spot.'

"You're not bad Son in law, sloppy in form but precise in movement." Cologne flipped a piece of paper towards her that Ranma caught. "Fill that out and you can work for me."

The paper turned out to be an employment application. "Why would I want to work for you?" She asked angrily.

"It would give you plenty of opportunity to get this." Cologne reached into the front of her clothing to pull out a small case hung from a chain around her neck. "The cure to your condition, the phoenix pill."

"Phoenix pill?" Ranma let the tension in her body drop and looked away from Cologne. "Like the legendary bird?"

"Exactly, the phoenix is a champion of heat resistance." Cologne started to explain and Ranma took her chance to try and steal the case. She had barely started to move before that staff knocked her upside the head, and Cologne continued like nothing had happened. "It will cancel out the cat's tongue pressure point. But you have to take it from me."

"Fine!" She slammed the paper down on the counter. "Gimme a pen."

X x x x x x

After leaving school, Akane wandered through the streets looking for the address Kasumi had written down this morning for the restaurant Cologne was setting up. Ranma owed her for turning in his homework and when she got home for communicating what he needed to do for tomorrow. Of course all the teachers had given that task to her since she lived under the same roof as the sick kid.

She heard Ranma's female voice before she had found the building. As a moving van went past, she rolled her eyes at another scream of outrage from her feminine fiancé. The correct address was obvious, what with Ranma repeatedly yelling out some insult towards Cologne, a cry of pain, and various other sound effects. Since it was open, she entered in through the front door, and found Ranma heatedly arguing with Cologne who threw eight rectangular paper lanterns with bright red frames around the edges at Ranma who caught each one.

"Ah Akane-san." Cologne greeted her as Ranma grumbled and went off to set the lanterns up over the overhead lights. Ranma had to do the task by jumping up and securing them in place before falling back to the ground. The floor itself was empty, the tables and chairs all piled off in the corner next to the kitchen. "What can I do for you?"

"You could fix what you did to Ranma." She suggested. "Who is for some reason helping you setup your shop."

"He's my newest employee." The elderly woman answered.

"Just till I get that pill you old hag!" Ranma snapped, attaching the last lantern to land lightly on the floor, and pointed a finger at Cologne.

"Well you have the stamina my boy, but do you have the skill?" Cologne hopped off the cash register counter and hopped towards the kitchen area. "Now put those tables and chairs in place around the room."

"Old ghoul." Ranma cursed but did as she was told.

"Are you alright?" Akane asked, noticing that Ranma looked like she had been thrown around the room a dozen times.

"Yea just fine, nothing that old bat can do will keep me down." She answered, carrying a table into place.

"Then why are you working for her?"

"She's got a pill that'll fix what she did. But I gotta take it from her." The smaller girl answered.

"And you can't do it?" Akane smiled smugly, imagining Ranma finally getting shown up.

"Oh I'll do it." Ranma gave off a crazed laugh. "I swear I will!" The response to Ranma's declaration was a metal pot that shot out of the kitchen to impact the back of the girl's head with a heavy clang before falling on to the table. Ranma clutched at the back of her head in pain, cursing repeatedly.

"Back to work, we have to be ready to open tomorrow for lunch!" Cologne called from the kitchen. "And don't dent that pot!"

"You're the one that threw it you miserable old sack of wrinkled flesh!" Ranma shouted and hurled the pot back into the kitchen.

"It was your head that it hit!"

Grimacing, Akane rubbed at one of her temples. "I'll have Kasumi save you some dinner in case you'll be here late and I have your assignments for today."

"Really? Thanks." Ranma darted back and forth across the floor to setup the rest of the tables.

"Good luck Ranma." She told her strange fiancé who paused in her tasks.

"Thanks." Ranma answered before running into the kitchen.

'Oh Ranma.' She shook her head, wincing when there was another metallic clang followed by pained whimpers from the Lycan girl. 'What a pig headed idiot.'

X x x x x x

Later that night

'Tendo has gotten better.' Genma didn't let his face slip from it's mask as he stared across the shogi board at his oldest friend. Checking his moves, every single one of them would lose him a piece. Worse yet, barely half of those would open up a decent move, and on top of that his entire defensive strategy would be broken. Crossing his arms, he tried to figure out the best move to make.

The best move of course was to distract Tendo, so that he could move the pieces to better suit him. But with Soun watching him like a hawk and clearly expecting him to try something devious, he needed something else. 'I need an outside distraction. Now where is that ungrateful brat of mine when I need him?'

"Lemme go Shampoo!" Ranma's female voice yelled.

'And the universe provides.' He had to fight to keep the smile off of his face as Shampoo came bounding over the outside wall with a tied up Ranma slung over her shoulder. A second jump carried her over the koi pond to land next to them.

"Here go." Shampoo unceremoniously dropped Ranma on to the shogi board, breaking it in half once again. "Great Grandmother say she no want waitress be tired for first day and Airen no leave her alone."

"The game!" Soun exclaimed while Genma secretly rejoiced at his good fortune.

"Pop lemme out of this thing." Ranma struggled with the thick rope wrapped tightly around his body from his shoulders to his knees. "I need to get that cure from the old ghoul."

"Hmm." He scratched at his chin. "Is that where you've been all day?"

"Yes!"

"Great Grandmother hire Airen to work at restaurant." Shampoo supplied helpfully.

"Get some sleep and try again in the morning." He decided. Ranma was being too high strung as it was and unless his mother magically showed up, an extra few hours of him being a girl wouldn't hurt. Ranma didn't respond other than to growl and get up to his feet to hop down the hall to the steps.

"Shampoo go now." The Chinese girl took off from the way she came.

"Do you think I should bring Ranma his dinner?" Kasumi asked absently.

"He's fine." Genma waved off the girl's concern. "But I'll take it though."

X x x x x x

"Stupid no good father." Ranma gripped her futon blanket in her teeth and rolled over to cover up the majority of her body. Squirming, she used her toes to pull it on the rest of the way. Settling down, she stared up at the ceiling, fuming over her inability to best a human who should have been dead from old age a century ago.

"Damn these ropes are itchy." She rolled over to try and get an itch on her left arm.

"Having fun Saotome?" Nabiki's amused voice asked.

"Hi Nabiki." She answered slowly.

"Seems like you're in a bit of a－ bind." She walked into the room and lifted up the blanket. "Tisk tisk."

"Listen could you undo this knot?" Ranma looked towards her stomach.

"What's in it for me?" The middle Tendo asked.

"The knowledge that you've done a good thing." She answered.

"Not good enough." Nabiki let the blanket fall back on her and stood up.

"Wa－ wait! What would be good enough?"

"How about a photoshoot. But－ I want some of whatever it is you turn into."

"Why would you want that?"

"Does it matter?"

"You already sell enough pictures of me and I can't even think what you would do with those, so yes it matters."

"Too bad then." Nabiki replied flippantly. "Sleep tight." Ranma glared at the retreating girl as she exited the room and flipped the overhead light off. 'They're all against me.' She sighed, putting her head down on her pillow to stare upwards.

"You in here Ranma?" Akane's head peaked in the doorway.

"Yes." She answered and Akane flipped the light on.

"What are you doing laying around in the dark." The youngest Tendo asked.

"Nabiki turned it off and if you didn't know I'm kind of tied up." She replied sarcastically. "If you're not going to untie me, lemme try and get some sleep." Akane's eyes narrowed into tiny slits. "Uh－ that is to say, could you untie me please?" Ranma pouted, trying to make her eyes look ultra big and wet.

"Fine." Akane caved in, either at Ranma's display, or to be nice. Once free, she scratched furiously all over her body.

"Awww yea, that's the good stuff." She ended up scratching the sides of her breasts.

"Stop molesting yourself." Akane hit her over the head.

"I wasn't." She protested, sitting cross legged.

"So are you going to run off to try and get that pill you're after?"

"I should, not like Cologne has my stamina, even if I can't beat her outright I can outlast her."

"You're admitting that someone is better than you?" Akane seemed far too amused with that idea.

"For today she was." Ranma crossed her arms and looked away.

"Can't be the best all the time." Akane's smug factor rose.

"You do realize that both Shampoo and Cologne are better than you right?"

"This isn't about them." Akane snapped.

"Oh? So pointing out how I'm not as good as someone is fine, but you're going to get all angry when I do the same thing?" Ranma leaned in towards Akane. "You'd almost be cute if you weren't such an uncoordinated tomboy."

"That old woman must have hit you harder than I thought." Akane rapidly rose to her feet.

"So uncute." Ranma flopped back on her futon.

"Stupid dog." Akane shot back.

"Wolf." He pointed out

"You didn't say anything about not being stupid." Akane stuck out her tongue.

X x x x x x

Kuonji Ukyo stared out the windows that made up an entire wall of her penthouse apartment. For eight years now she had been out of Japan and she was happy to be back, even if the language had become a slight barrier. Leaning against a plush chair was her battle spatula that a Yakuza eyed warily as he approached her.

"Yes?" She asked with her arms crossed. Appearing to be a man was the only reason she received any respect from the army of Yakuza who were her units eyes and ears. That was another plus of being away from Budapest. While there she was often required to show off her body and her shame.

"Kuonji-sama, our investigators were able to find these." The man held out a folder filled with photographs. "They're from the Sayama Natural Park in Saitama Prefecture. We searched there after a report that locals had heard wolves in the night."

Pulling out the photographs, she found shots of distinctive animal tracks that could only be made by one creature. "How many and any indication on where they entered from?"

"A handful at most and from the East but other than that we don't know anything."

"Get me a map." Putting the pictures back into the folder, she handed it back, and he bowed before leaving.

None of that information truly helped her. Lycans being such simple creatures wouldn't have considered masking their entry point, so that narrowed it down slightly, assuming that they would be on foot. In her experience that was a good assumption to make. The Lycans she had dealt with lived like the animals that they were, so having the money to own a car in Tokyo was out, and why would they pay for a cab when they could walk?

When the man returned with her map, she began to draw a basic triangle from the park out to the East, guessing on the walking distance, she finished the triangle. "Focus your efforts in this area."

"Yes Kuonji-sama." The man bowed and left again.

She didn't expect them to find anything, especially with the full moon having past, but perhaps there would be some police report or some tabloid paper reporting a strange creature in the area. Anything would help to narrow down the search for wherever the Lycans were making their home. Sitting down in the plush chair, she idly rubbed the top of her battle spatula, imagining that these Lycans may just be the ones she was searching for.

X x x x x x

The next morning, Ranma awoke before her father again, and took a few minutes to stare at his sleeping form. She hadn't waited for him before falling asleep last night, so she didn't get to ask the question that was burning a hole in her head. Getting up, she stood over Genma with arms crossed, and nudged him with her foot.

"Wake up ol man." She demanded.

"Ready for the morning spar?" Genma asked, scratching at his stomach.

"Not today." She answered and dropped down to sit in a cross legged position with her arms still crossed. "I want to know why you're not doing anything about Shampoo."

"I don't know what you're talking about boy."

"Don't give me that. Is this thing with Akane just some kind of diversion? Something for us to have a place to stay? What?"

Genma adjusted his glasses slowly. "You know we've never met any other Lycans and I don't want anything to do with fighting vampires so we need to stay away from the ones I do know of."

"And?" She tapped her fingers expectantly.

"And Shampoo might be better for you than Akane." Genma replied seriously and Ranma was taken aback by the abrupt statement.

"Explain." She narrowed her eyes at him. Genma was the one that brought her here, he was the one that kept pushing for this engagement, and now he was ignoring his own idea? "You do realize that up until a couple days ago, Shampoo was trying to behead me or maybe skin me alive? I never really figured out what her endgame was other than me being dead."

"Because Akane is a human and Shampoo is not. I'm sure you've realized what that means."

Ranma nodded slowly. "I also know that my mom was human."

"Sneaky boy." Genma had never talked about her, but Ranma knew that it must have been the case, and Genma couldn't keep the secret any longer, so they left or she was dead. The second option was unlikely, Ranma would have expected that Genma, no matter how much of an uncultured thug, would have at least occasionally brought it up.

"So where is she?" Ranma asked. "Why couldn't I meet her now?"

Genma laughed very nervously, the kind of laugh that Ranma knew meant that he had done something very stupid. "Get the cure to your problem and then we'll talk about it."

"That's probably a good idea, not like she'd want to meet her son when he's her daughter." She now knew that her mother was alive and that Genma had done something stupid before they had left. Unfortunately Genma was right, how could she meet her mother stuck in this body? Standing, she picked at her boxers that had bunched up in the back, and grabbed some clean clothes.

"I'm gonna take a bath."

"I'll join you."

"Stupid old man, I'm going to have to use cold water and I'm not taking a bath with a stinky panda." Ranma rolled her eyes.

"Good point." Genma immediately laid himself back down to get more sleep.

X x x x x x

"Welcome to the Nekohanten." Ranma greeted in a bubbly voice as a young couple entered into the restaurant and moved to set two steaming bowls of ramen down at a table. Clothed in a pale yellow chinese pant suit with green flowers dotting it, a white apron with frills on the shoulders, and a flowering headband, she quickly moved to place eating utensils and menus on the table when the couple sat down.

"We're currently having a grand opening special which means all meals are twenty percent off. I'll be back in a minute to take your order." Bowing, she moved over to a table that had just been vacated to clean it off.

"Order up!" Cologne called from the window into the kitchen.

At the window, Ranma purposely put the trio of dishes on a round tray before making another attempt at the phoenix pill around Cologne's neck. Every attempt was met by a deflection by Cologne, who casually found another bowl of ramen to throw up in the air over Ranma's head. "Order up!" She announced and Ranma hastily stopped her attacks to pick up the tray filled with food, grab a second tray, and catch the bowl as it dropped on the empty one.

Grumbling, Ranma put back on her cheery face and headed off to deposit the food and take the couples order. She had already had some of the ramen broth fall on her, and was in no hurry to repeat the process. It was a small consolation that only liquids burned, even though it did feel really warm out, which no one else seemed to notice.

Going on autopilot for customer duty, she didn't always attack Cologne, trying to mix things up in order to catch the old woman off balance. It didn't work, Cologne didn't seem to ever drop her guard, and was so fast that Ranma could barely touch her. Frustration was setting in and if it wasn't daytime she would be in danger of changing forms. That however was the last thing she wanted to do in front of Cologne. The old woman was playing with her and it would be bad for the moment if she decided to get serious. Shampoo's reaction to seeing her Lycan form seemed like a minor hiccup in comparison.

All activity in the restaurant stopped when a large black and white form entered in through the doorway. The panda looked left, then right, then settled for finding an open chair and nearly broke it when he sat down.

"What are you doing old man?" Ranma asked her panda father, dropping all pretense of being polite.

#Is that anyway to greet a customer?#

Leveling a bored look at Genma, she deposited a menu in front of him. "Special today－ twenty percent off on meals." She told him slowly, pulling out a pad of paper to write down the order.

#Shiitake pork#

"You got money hidden where you stick those signs?" She wrote down the order but didn't move.

#You have a job, you pay.#

"Order up!" Cologne yelled and hurled a bowl through the air towards her. Without missing a beat, Ranma caught it and in the same motion to stop it from spilling, set it down on the nearby table.

"I'm not paying for your food." She glared at her father, ignoring the applause for her impromptu show. "You have your own job at Tofu's. Where's the money from that?"

#I spent it.#

"What in the world would you have to spend money on?" She demanded and tapped her foot.

#It's a surprise!# (3)

"Fine, I'll pay for you this one time, and only one time."

X x x x x x

Genma ignored the strange looks he received in this form, long used to average people being confused over why a giant panda was in their midst. After years of putting Ranma through various strange and exotic training exercises, he immediately noticed that Cologne was training Ranma to increase his speed. Ranma might realize it, but was likely too focused on the goal, and was ignoring the journey.

'She's very good.' He narrowed his eyes while watching Ranma and Cologne briefly exchange a flurry of attacks. 'It's good there are still people to put the boy in his place.' Genma did not like to admit it but without his familiarity with Ranma, he would not fare as well as he did against him. In another year or two at max, he wouldn't be able to keep up.

"Ah, Saotome-dono." Cologne moved over to him on that staff of hers with a kettle that she placed on the table in front of him. Taking the cue, he returned to human form, and straightened out his clothing. Moving his eyes from Cologne to Ranma who was busy with other customers, he felt safe enough to talk for a moment with the customers providing a comfortable sound barrier. "Can't get enough of my ramen?"

"Don't think you can dominate the boy with petty games, he's a wild animal, and will bite back." He ignored her question about the ramen since Ranma was distracted on the other side of the room.

"If he wasn't strong he wouldn't have been able to best my Shampoo." Cologne answered without knowing what Genma's warning was truly about. If she continued to torment Ranma then he knew his son would do something rash. Genma would be disappointed that he had lost control after all the work they had done on that subject, but it would be justified. "Does that mean you are adverse to the marriage?"

"Not－ completely. But you need to understand that he's promised to another." He was digging to see just how serious Cologne was.

Shampoo, by being a Lycan now, was the girl he would have chosen if he had known beforehand, in order to avoid Ranma always having to be distant with, and eventually leave his wife. 'If only I hadn't made that promise with Soun before being bitten.' He thought bitterly. His original idea with engaging Ranma to Akane was to let him live out a fairly normal life since he still did not accept that Lycans were immortal even though Genma had not aged since Ranma had turned six.

"The Tendo girl."

"Akane, and as a promise between friends, it is not something I wish to break simply because Shampoo made a claim."

"It is not just a claim, it is the law of our village and people."

"Law my ass." Ranma butted in, setting down Genma's food in front of him. "Here it is you freeloader." She instantly raised the round tray to try and blind Cologne before jabbing forward with her other hand to get at a large round object around the old woman's neck.

Genma nearly missed Cologne jabbing Ranma in the stomach with the pointed end of her staff before Ranma could even get close to her. Something knocked the tray from Ranma's hands up into the air and then the head of the staff hit Ranma in the forehead before the tray landed on her head to add insult.

"That hurt you old ghoul!" Ranma held both hands over her forehead.

"Go bus the tables." Cologne told Ranma, sitting calmly, and without having moved. Ranma stayed in her spot obviously thinking about making another attempt before moving off to clean a table. "He has impressive stamina."

"He's always been a handful." Genma chuckled to himself, thinking of embarrassing stories he might use to get Ranma to work even harder, or do what he wanted.

"While parental consent isn't taken in account, it would be nice if you supported a marriage between the two." Cologne continued their conversation too soon and Genma could see Ranma tilt her head slightly to point an ear towards them.

"No, it's ultimately Ranma's choice, and if you think trying to force him will work, you're getting senile in your old age." Genma closed his eyes and crossed his arms, already having seen the incredulous stare from Ranma, and hoping that Cologne wouldn't turn her attentions to him for that senile crack. Cologne looked far too much like the dreaded Master for him to have any real backbone against her.

Cologne cackled loudly and Genma's eyes snapped open at the horrifying sound. "Like father like son! Ranma will definitely make an excellent groom for Shampoo!"

"I'm nobodies groom old ghoul!" Ranma slammed her hands down on the table. "Now gimme that pill!"

X x x x x x

Three days later

"Hurray, Shampoo's back." Ranma said with false enthusiasm, kneeling next to the table at the Tendo's waiting for dinner, and still in the clothing she wore while waitressing. This time it was a red Chinese pantsuit with white clef symbols positioned randomly over the entire outfit.

Shampoo had been sent back to China to return to the country legally, the day she had been drafted into becoming the Nekohanten's waitress, and had returned today. How this was accomplished so quickly, Ranma had no idea. Today she had worked only from lunch until dinner time and now Shampoo was going to close up. Tomorrow they would be switching, so Ranma's day suddenly opened up. Since that would give her plenty of time to get sleep, she wanted, no needed to go out tonight and blow off steam.

"I'd think you would be happy." Akane replied snidely, not taking the return of Shampoo well. "Your cute Lycan girlfriend is back and you don't have to work all day at the Nekohanten."

"One, she's not my girlfriend." She replied to the youngest Tendo. "Two, that just means I can't get that phoenix pill. That old ghoul hides it whenever I'm not working." Propping up her chin with both elbows on the table, she snorted. "Can't even sniff it out."

"Yea well, it'll give you time to get your schoolwork done." Akane pointed out. "You failed all but two of your assignments, you should really go to class again."

"This is no time to worry about school." She said weakly, admitting to herself that this whole incident was ruining her class work. Genma, in panda form, chose her momentary distraction to hit her over the head with a wooden sign. "What was that for?" She demanded angrily.

#Don't flunk out, school's expensive!#

"Oh shut up old man." She kicked him in the gut. "How am I supposed to go to school as a girl?"

"The same way all girl's go to school I suppose." Nabiki mused. "I imagine it's a lot like how boys go to school."

"You're so smart Nabiki!" Ranma said in an overly bubbly voice. "I mean, I'm sure nobody will question why I'm suddenly a girl or that I show up as a guy when I'm finally able to change back. Nope, no one will ever question that!" Nabiki glared at her while Akane giggled. "You better stick to scamming Kuno."

"You're going to pay for that little joke Saotome." Nabiki remarked.

"I'm terrified." Ranma responded.

X x x x x x

Ranma woke slowly after a night in the woods, stretching herself out on her back; she inadvertently pushed the cover off her naked body. She didn't care what time it was or if she had to be at work soon, she just wanted to enjoy the pleasant memories from last night. It would have been nice to have Genma or even Shampoo join her, but then again, it was also nice to just be by herself. That and she doubted either of them could change at will like her.

The only sounds she could hear was indistinct talking from the television downstairs reaching her through the thin walls. Finally opening her eyes, she glanced at the clock and found that it was nearly lunch time. Hungry enough to eat a panda, she got dressed in boxers and a tank top to head down in order to clean up.

"Morning." She greeted Kasumi who was watching something on the television in the living room.

"Good morning." The eldest Tendo returned her greeting while visually inspecting Ranma's dirty body. "Do you－ have to get so dirty?"

"No－ but it's fun to." She answered. It wouldn't be cutting loose if she had worried about a little thing like dirt.

"Oh－ alright. I'm having some soup for lunch, would you like some?"

"Sure." Ranma nodded and left the girl to take her bath. Checking the water in the bath, it felt like a nice temperature, even though she knew it wouldn't change her back. After cleaning herself, she was just sitting down in the water when Kasumi burst into the room.

"Ranma wait that water is hot!" She came to an abrupt stop.

"Hot?" Ranma asked, her voice changing from it's female version to a masculine one. "I'm a guy." He felt his chest and found that he was indeed male. "I'm cured!" He cried happily.

"I'm happy for you." Kasumi quickly exited the room.

Laughing stupidly, he turned on the hot water faucet to add even more to the bath. Splashing his face repeatedly, a bath had never felt so good. Reality crashed into his happy mood and he sputtered on some water. 'I know I didn't get that phoenix pill, so how?' The only thing that had changed was that he had changed last night. Laughing again, he realized that the same pressure point probably didn't work on that form so he was free!

X x x x x x

Author Notes

1 - They were just staying the night while the paperwork goes through to purchase the building she'll be setting up the Nekohanten in.

2 - Ranma gained a bit of length to his hair but not much else from the dragon whisker due to his body resisting outside change. The cat's tongue by contrast is something applied externally that causes an internal change.

3 - Genma spent it on a new shogi board. Ranma was not pleased.


End file.
